Capt. Josiah N. Jones of Portsmouth, NH Biography from A History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire (1915)
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Source: A History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and Representative Citizens
by Charles A. Hazlett, Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, Ill, 1915
Page 851
CAPT. JOSIAH N. JONES, a veteran of the Civil War, for years a well
known and respected citizen of Portsmouth, N. H. but now residing at
Lawrence, Mass., was born in Wakefield, N. H., April 6, 1835. His parents
were John and Rhoda (Witham) Jones. The father, a native of Lebanon,
Me., was a farmer and a soldier of the War of 1812; the mother was from
Milton, N. H. They had eight children-Reuben, Mary and Martha (twins),
Hiram, John R., Josiah N., Mahala and Matilda-only three of whom are
now living.
Josiah N. Jones was educated in the district schools of Carroll county,
which he attended only during the winter months, as he had to work on the
farm during the summer, his father having died when Josiah was but eight
years old. Leaving school at the age of sixteen, he went to Boston, where he
learned the trade of machinist and blacksmith-learned it very thoroughly.
as his subsequent record proved. He then went west and worked at his
trade for some time in Chicago. Having a strong desire to see the country,
he continued his pilgrimage to the Mississippi river and beyond, finally reach-
ing the Far West, where he spent some years, hunting buffalo in Kansas as
early as 1858, and traveling from the Rocky Mountains to the Rio Grande.
He returned home at a time of great political excitement, owing to the
approaching struggle between the Northern and Southern States. A year
before the breaking out of the war he joined the Massachusetts Volunteer
Page 852
Militia, and was therefore in readiness to go out on the first call for 75,000
troops. On April 15, 1861, he enlisted in the Sixth Regiment of Massa-
chusetts Volunteer Infantry and went out with his regiment. After serving
out a term of three months and seventeen days, he re-enlisted in the Sixth
New Hampshire Regiment, becoming first lieutenant of Company D. On
August 4, 1862, he was promoted to the captaincy of Company F and served
until the close of the war, enduring much hardship. He was mustered out
in December, 1864, having made an honorable record for valiant and faith-
ful service. He was commander of his regiment for four months during his
service, and was also in command of the Thirty-second Maine Regiment for
about a month. After the war Captain Jones returned to the West, where
he again spent a number of years, residing seven years in Rockford, Ill.
He was married, August 7, 1860, to Miss Mary E. Rhoads, who was born
in York county, Me., a daughter of Aaron and Ruth (Roberts) Rhoads,
residents of that county, where her father followed farming. There were
four children in the Rhoads family-Lydia A., Asa S., Sarah J. and Mary E.
Captain Jones's principal work throughout his life has been the making
of machinists' tools, and as an expert in that line he is known far and wide.
In 189O he received a bronze medal for tools made by him, from the Massa-
chusetts Charitable Mechanics' Association at Boston, Mass. He has taken
out several patents on tool work, and has designed new tools and improved
old ones, such as thread-cutting tools, diamond-nosed tools, offset thread and
cutoff tools, etc., they being used by machinists in working on lathes, planers,
shapers, etc. Captain Jones spent over fifty years at this work, and for fifteen
years made practically all the special machinist's tools used in the machine shop
of the Portsmouth Navy Yard. He is very expert on hardening and temper-
ing steel, and, although now retired, still keeps up his old interest and enthu-
siasm in this line of work.
Captain Jones is a Republican in politics but occasionally disregards party
lines in casting his vote, as he sees fitting reason. While a resident of Water-
boro, Me., he served as selectman, and also as postmaster at Waterboro Center.
In 1909 he was a member of the legislature for this district. He belongs to
the Odd Fellows and to Post No. I, G. A. R. He is a man devoid of sec-
tional feeling, however, being an American in the broad sense of the term, a
champion of equal rights to all men. He has delivered speeches on political
or other topics all over New England, usually to large and appreciative au-
diences. He and his wife are affiliated with the Unitarian church.
In the fall of 1914 Captain Jones sold his property in Portsmouth and
moved to Lawrence, Mass., and in so doing deprived Portsmouth of one of
her most valued citizens. At a farewell reception given to him by the mem-
bers of his Grand Army Post and Woman's Relief Corps in Portsmouth, he
was presented with a beautiful gold ring as a token of the regard and esteem
in which he was held, and his wife with a brooch. He and his estimable
wife left many friends in Portsmouth, as few people were better known or
more highly esteemed here.